A delegation from the US Department of War, led by Secretary of the Army Daniel Driscoll, arrived in Kyiv on Wednesday. A close aide to Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed to a media briefing that the Ukrainian president intends to meet with them.
Zelenskyy traveled to Turkey earlier this week and had hoped to be accompanied by US special envoy Steve Witkoff, who handles contacts with many other countries on behalf of President Donald Trump.
Believed in meeting
Ukrainian officials had expected Witkoff to show up, by all accounts – and were optimistic that they could breathe new life into the mediation process – but that did not happen. According to sources familiar with the matter, Axios reported that Witkoff cancelled the meeting because Zelensky wanted the talks to be based on a different plan developed with European allies.
At about the same time, American media reported that the United States and Russia were holding talks on a peace settlement, without Ukrainian or European involvement. The talks reportedly included major land concessions, with Ukraine giving Russia the Donbass region in the east, and major limitations on Ukraine's future defense capabilities.
A Ukrainian source tells AFP that in that case it is a question of Ukraine's capitulation to Russia.
Got it "from K"?
A message that Steve Witkoff appears to have accidentally posted on social media is fueling further speculation about what's going on. At noon on Wednesday, Witkoff wrote a post on X commenting on Axio's original revelation about the Russian-American negotiations.
"He must have received this from K...", the message read, according to Sky News, among others, which noticed it before it was deleted shortly afterwards.
One person at "K" who is highly involved in the conversations that the article revealed is Witkoff's Russian counterpart, businessman Kirill Dmitriev, who acts as an envoy for President Vladimir Putin.
According to Axios' revelation, Witkoff and Dmitriyev recently met at Witkoff's home in Florida to discuss a plan. Neither the US nor Russia have confirmed or denied the reported peace talks.
